Conversion of nonstandard fuel-oil into usable fuel via hydrocracking process and characterization of product profile

The aim of this study is converting a petrochemical product/waste to a fuel by hydrocracking process. In petrochemical industries, some by-products or "off-spec" products are produced. Utilization of these products as fuel or chemical feedstocks is important either in terms of environmental or economic sides. The "non-standard fuel oil" is a by-product of naphtha steam cracking (NSC) unit in a petrochemical complex. This by-product's amount is about 4 percent of naphtha charged to system obtained from ethylene plant of Aliağa PETKİM facility and the annual yield of "non-standard fuel oil" is about 95000 tons. In this study, the conversion of Aromatic Rich Cracked Fuel Oil (ARCFO or non-standard Fuel-Oil) to light petroleum products by co-processing in a refinery unit such as hydrocracking with heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) which is the feedstock of this unit was aimed. ARCFO was subjected to thermal and catalytic co-hydrocracking processes. ARCFO and the blends of ARCFO with HVGO were cracked in the presence of H2. Hydrocracking reactions with or without catalysts were carried out at a 6.0 MPa initial hydrogen pressure at different temperatures of 400, 425 and 450°C for a reaction time of 60 min for ARCFO. The catalyst employed was commercial DHC-8 catalyst. The effects of catalyst and the temperature on the yield and properties of liquid product of ARCFO were investigated. Then these processes were carried out for the blends of ARCFO and HVGO in different ratios at 450°C under thermal and catalytic conditions. The liquid products were analysed by 1H NMR and GC, and Br numbers of liquid products were determined. The asphaltene amounts of liquid products were determined and their properties were investigated by FT-IR and elemental analysis. Also the liquids were sorted out to aliphatic, aromatic and polar fractions and percentages of each other were determined. The aliphatic fractions of each sample were analysed by GC.